MONTREAL - One year after a lengthy labour dispute forced him to wait all summer before he could bury his deceased 90-year-old mother, Paul Caghassi still relives the painful memories.

He says he's reminded of his ordeal every time he hears radio ads Montreal's Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery is running to brag of the caring service it provides customers.

It was one year ago on May 16, 2007, that about 130 employees at one of Canada's largest cemeteries were locked out by management and then went on strike.

For four months, about 500 bodies were left in cold storage before burials finally resumed in early September.

"In my case, I lost my mother on May 13th and we buried her on September 30th and I was one of the first ones," Caghassi said in an interview.

Almost all the bodies have had a proper burial, but a few others still have not found a final resting place.

"Some bodies are (still) not buried because of the lockout and they come and claim they can provide the service to new customers," Caghassi said.

"They claim they will treat their clients better, but Quebec has already been a witness to the way we were treated last year," he added.

"We were not respected and we did not have the service our deceased were entitled to."

Cemetery director Yoland Tremblay said in an interview some 50 bodies are in storage but they are not all left from the labour disruption.

"There are only five bodies related to the conflict which have not been buried. . . we have been in contact with the families for several weeks and they haven't yet decided on dates for burial," he said.

"In certain cases, some of them still haven't chosen a plot and in others, they have to contact other members of the family first."

Tremblay said 480 burials were done before the end of December and the other 15 in January and February.

He added some wanted to wait until after the holidays "when they would have felt more comfortable."

"If it was up to us, we would have finished all the burials before Christmas," Tremblay said.

He said 11 sections of the cemetery are closed to burials during the winter months for safety reasons.

Hockey legend Maurice Richard, former Quebec premier Robert Bourassa, assassinated Father of Confederation Thomas d'Arcy McGee and Calixa Lavalee, who wrote "O Canada," are among are among the nearly one million people who are buried at Notre-Dame-des-Neiges.

Caghassi, 52, said it was also difficult on his two children, aged 12 and 14, who could not understand how the cemetery could advertise that it treated its clients well.

Tremblay said the radio and newspaper campaign, which runs from February through May, has been done every year for the past three years.

Debora De Thomasis waited all summer to bury her 90-year-old grandmother and during the long wait, her 93 year-old grandfather died.

She ended up burying both of them together in early September - two days after the lockout ended.

"It's still painful . . it makes you wonder what the value of life is and makes you think we're not worth that much and it's all just a business," De Thomasis said.

The families of the deceased have launched a class-action suit against the cemetery.

Last November, the cemetery signed an agreement with its employees which should assure labour peace for the next 10 years.

Tremblay pointed out that the contract ends in 2018 while the old contract was only for three years.

But Caghassi said the only way he could finally "turn the page" was if the province declared burials an essential service.

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